Getting Firefox to do NTLM

I finally figured out how to get Firefox to do NTLM, which means I don't have to deal with the authentication dialogs, thereby reducing my dependence on IE to one and only one application (Oddpost).

It's not at all obvious how to make it work, and it took me a few tries. You have to go to your Firefox address bar and type about:config. This will bring up the internal config editor, which allows you to set all kinds of properties that influence Firefox's behavior. Look for the key called network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris. Set that key's value to a comma separated list of servers you want NTLM auth for. So if your internal SharePoint sites are on servers called Larry and Mo, use "larry,mo". You can also add the same value to the key network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris. It's unclear to me if that second one is required, but I set it, and everything works. Now SharePoint works like a champ, and authenticates automatically.

Making Firefox Extensions

Firefox uses XUL and Javascript to create extensions. I got the following steps from an article in pcmag.com.

1 Customize the Interface Almost all of Firefox's interface is customizable, but for starters, here's a simple context-menu add-on that looks up selected text on Wikipedia. Edit the XUL file to change the appearance of your extension: Menu text goes in the label attribute; the accesskey is the keyboard shortcut, which will be underlined in the menu; insertafter indicates position in the context menu; the name of your JavaScript function goes in the oncommand attribute; and the filename of your JS file goes in the <script src> tag.

2 Add Some Action The JavaScript code you include in your JS file defines the behavior of your extension. Here, the lookuponwikipedia() function (run by the XUL file) glues together the Wikipedia URL with the selected text and then opens the resulting URL in a new window. What will your extension do? See developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/JavaScript if you need some basic programming help.

3 Take Stock Update the two Contents.rdf files by replacing all the occurrences of wikipedialookup with the name of your extension. Make sure that the Contents.rdf file in the content folder correctly points to the filename of your XUL file. When you're done, rename the ZIP archive (the one containing the skin and content folders) with a .jar extension.

4 Update the Install Script There are six lines to update in the Install.rdf file: the name of your extension, the version number, the creator (you), a brief description, the name of the .jar file, and a unique ID that differentiates your extension from all others. Update the Install.js file in the same way so your extension will also install on SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, and Netscape.

5 Put It Back Together With all the files updated, rename the main ZIP file with an .xpi extension again. Make sure that the directory structure exactly matches the example XPI. To install your extension, drag and drop your XPI file onto an open Firefox window, and then restart Firefox.

6 Check Your Work Test your extension on a real Web site. If you get an error, or if something doesn't work, retrace your steps and see if you missed anything. If you want to share your extension with others, or to get help or see other examples, visit developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Extensions.

Firefox keystrokes

Ctrl-l goes to address/url bar.
Ctrl-k goes to search bar.

Ctrl-arrowup/down to scroll through search engines

Ctrl-W to close current tab
Ctrl+9 - go to last tab
Alt-Enter - Open new tab from address bar
Ctrl-Cmd-F5 - refresh override cache at same time
Alt-Home - open tab to home page
Backspace - go back a page
alt-shift-delete - clear private data
F11 - Full Screen
F7 toggles caret mode (cursor movement in screen)

Firefox Technology page - Firefox 4 notes

Put protocol (http://) back into Firefox awesome/address bar

The protocol (http://) has been removed from the URL in the location bar for http:// pages only. https:// pages will still have the protocol. There's also a known bug where if you copy the URL after selecting it from the awesome bar dropdown (but before loading the page), it won't include the http:// part. Users can revert to the old behavior by setting browser.urlbar.trimURLs to false in about:config.
Urlbar highlighting
This is a feature in Firefox to highlight the domain in the URL bar. Other parts will become grey. You can change a preference to make the entire URL dark. Users can revert to the old behavior by setting browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled to false in about:config.

To change this preference:

type about:config in the Location/URL bar and press Enter.
if you see a warning, accept (promise to be careful)